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3 



ur 



HON. DANIEL WEBSTER, 



ON 



3\\t Claf Utolutions, 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



MARCH 7, 185 0. 



(^L^T\ Vera pro gratis. -O-^ 







WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED BY GIDEON & CO. 
18 5 0. 



U ;^W^ 



' 




S P E E C II 



OF 



HON. DANIEL WEBSTER. 



ON 



MR. CLAY'S RESOLUTIONS, 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 

MARCH 7, 1850. 



VERA PRO GRATIS. 



/ 

W ASHINGTON: 

PRINTED BY GIDEON AND CO 
1850. 



• LO-35 



DEDICATION. 



With the highest respect, and TnE deepest sense of 

OBLIGATION, I DEDICATE THIS SPEECH TO THE 

PEOPLE OF MASSACHUSETTS: 

" His ego geatiora pictu alia esse scio ; sed me VERA PRO GRATIS 

LOQUI, ETSI MEVM IMGEMItJM NON MONEEET, NECESSITAS COGIT. VeLLEM, 

equldem, vobis placere ; sed mti.to MALO vos salvos ESSE, QUALICI ' 
e:;'.a me ammo futuri esi i- 

DANIEL WEBSTER. 

WASHINGTON, March 18, 1850. 



SPEECH. 



In the Senate of the United States, March 7, 1- 

The Vice-President. The resolutions submitted by 
the Senator from Kentucky were made the special order 

of the day at 12 o'clock. The Senator from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Walker) has the iloor. 

Mr. Walker. Mr. President, this vast audience has 
not assembled to hear me; and there is but one man, in 
my opinion, who can assemble such an audience. They 
expect to hear him, and I feel it to be my duty, as it is 
my pleasure, to give the floor, therefore, to the Senatoi 
from Massachusetts. I understand it is immaterial to 
him upon which of these questions he speaks, and there- 
fore I will not move to postpone the special order. 

Mr. Webster. I beg to express my obligations to my 
friend from Wisconsin (Mr. Walker ), as well as to my 
friend from New York (Mr. Sewabd), for their courtesy 
in allowing me to address the Senate this morning. 

Mr. President, I wish to speak to-day, not as a Mas- 
sachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an Ame- 
rican, and a member of the Senate of the United State- 
It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United 
States; a body, not yet moved from its propri sty, not 



6 

lost to a just sense of its own dignity, and its own high 
responsibilities, and a body to which the country looks, 
with confidence, for wise, moderate, patriotic, and heal- 
ing counsels. It is not to be denied that we live in the 
midst of strong agitations, and are surrounded by very 
considerable dangers to our institutions and govern- 
ment. The imprisoned winds are let loose. The East, 
the North, and the stormy South, combine to throw 
the whole ocean into commotion, to toss its billows to 
the skies, and disclose its profoundest depths. I do not 
affect to regard myself, Mr. President, as holding, or as 
fit to hold, the helm in this combat with the political 
elements ; but I have a duty to perform, and I mean 
to perform it with fidelity, not without a sense of 
existing dangers, but not without hope. 1. have a part 
to act, not for my own security or safety, for I am look- 
ing out for no fragment upon which to float away from 
the wreck, if wreck there must be, but for the good of 
the whole, and the preservation of all ; and there is that 
which will keep me to my duty during this struggle, 
whether the sun and the stars shall appear, or shall not 
appear, for many days. I speak to-day for the pre- 
servation of the Union. "Hear me for my cause." I 
ik, to-day, out of a solicitous and anxious heart, for 
the restoration to the country of that quiet and that 
harmony which make the blessings of this Union so 
rich and so dear to us all. These are the topics that I 
propose to myself to discuss ; these are the motives, and 
the sole motives, that influence me in the wish to com- 
municate my opinions to the Senate and the country ; 



and if I can do anything, how >ver little, for the promo- 
tion of these ends, I shall have accomplished all thai I 
expect. 

Mr. President, it. may not be amiss to recur 
briefly to the events which, equally sudden and exta 
ordinary, have brought the political condition of the 
country to what it now is. In May, L846, the United 
States declared war against Mexico. Our armies, then 
on the frontiers, entered the provinces of that republic, 
met and defeated all her troops, penetrated her mountain 
passes, and occupied her capital. The marine force of 
the United States took possession of her forts and her 
towns, on the Atlantic and on the Pacific. In less than 
two years, a treaty was negotiated, by which Mexico 
ceded to the United States a vast territory, extending 
seven or eight hundred miles along the shores of the 
Pacific, and reaching back over the mountains, and acr 
the desert, until it joins the frontier of the State of 
Texas. It so happened, in the distracted and feeble Btate 
of the Mexican Government, that, before the declaration 
of war by the United States against Mexico had become 
known in California, the people of California, under the 
lead of American officers, overthrew the existing pro- 
vincial government of California, the Mexican authori- 
ties, and run up an independent flag. When the n< 
arrived at San Francisco that war had been declared by 
the United States against .Mexico, this independent flag 
was pulled down, and the stars and stripes of this Union 
hoisted in its stead. So, sir, before the war was over, 
the forces of the United States, military and naval. 



had possession of San Francisco and Upper California, 
and a great rush of emigrants from various parts of the 
world took place into California in 1846 and 1847. But 
now, behold another wonder. 

In January of 1848, the Mormons, or some of them, 
made a discovery of an extraordinarily rich mine of 
gold, or, rather, of a very great quantity of gold, hardly 
fit to be called a mine, for it was spread near the surface, 
on the lower part of the South, or American, branch of 
the Sacramento. They seem to have attempted to con- 
ceal their discovery for some time; but soon another 
discovery, perhaps of greater importance, was made of 
gold, in another part of the American branch of the 
Sacramento, and near Sutter's Fort, as it is called. The 
fame of these discoveries spread far and wide. They 
inflamed more and more the spirit of emigration towards 
California, which had already been excited ; and persons 
crowded in hundreds, and flocked towards the Bay of 
San Francisco. This, as I have said, took place in the 
winter and spring of 1848. The digging commenced in 
the spring of that year, and from that time to this the 
work of searching for gold has been prosecuted with a 
success not heretofore known in the history of this globe. 
We all know, sir, how incredulous the American public 
was at the accounts which reached us, at first, of these 
discoveries; but we all know, now, that these accounts 
received, and continue to receive, daily confirmation, 
and down to the present moment I suppose the assur- 
ances arc as strong, after the experience of these several 
months, of mines of gold apparently inexhaustible in 



9 

the regions near San Francisco, in California, as thej 
were at any period of the earlier dates of the accounts. 
It so happened, air, that, although after the return oi 

peace, it became a very important subject for legislative 
consideration and legislative decision, to provide a propei 
territorial government for California, yd difference 

opinion in the counsels of the Government prevented tin 
establishment of any such territorial government, at tin 
last session of Congress. Under this state of things, th< 
inhabitants of San Francisco and California, then amount- 
ing to a great number of people, in the summer of la-t 
year, thought it to be their duty to establish a loci 
vernment, Under the proclamation of General Riley, 
the people chose delegates to a Convention; that Con- 
vention met at Monterey. They formed a constitution 
for the State of California, and it was adopted by the 
people of California in their primary assemblages. De- 
sirous of immediate connection with the United States, 
its Senators were appointed and Representatives chosen 
who have come hither, bringing with them the authentic 
Constitution of the State of California: and they qoy 
present themselves, asking, in behalf of their State, thai 
it may be admitted into this Union as one of the United 
States. This constitution, sir. contains an express pro- 
hibition against slavery, or involuntary servitude in th< 
State of California. It is said, and 1 suppose truly, thai 
of the members who composed that Convention som< 
sixteen were natives of, and had been residents in, the 
Blaveholding States, about twenty-two were from tin 
non-slaveholdiug States, and the remaining ten members 



10 

were either native Californians or old settlers in that 
country. This prohibition against slavery, it is said, 
was inserted with entire unanimity. 

3Ir. Hale. Will the Senator give w T ay until order is 
restored ? 

The Vice-President. The Sergeant-at-Anns will see 
that order is restored, and no more persons admitted to 
the floor. 

Mr. Cass. I trust the scene of the other day will not 
be repeated. The Sergeant-at-Arms must display more 
energy in suppressing this disorder. 

Mr. Hale. The noise is outside of the door. 

Mr. Webster. And it is this circumstance, sir, the 
prohibition of slavery by that Convention, which has 
contributed to raise, I do not say it has wholly raised, 
the dispute as to the propriety of the admission of Cali- 
fornia into the Union under this constitution. It is not 
to be denied, Mr. President, nobody thinks of denying, 
that, whatever reasons were assigned at the commence- 
ment of the late war with Mexico, it was prosecuted for 
the purpose of the acquisition of territory, and under the 
alleged argument that the cession of territory was the 
only form in which proper compensation could be made 
to the United States by Mexico, for the various claims 
and demands which the people of this country had 
against that government. At any rate, it will be found 
that President Polk's message, at the commencement of 
the session of December, 1847, avowed that the war was 
to be prosecuted until some acquisition of territory should 
be made. And. as the acquisition was to be south of 



11 

the line of the United States, in warm clima 
countries, it was naturally, 1 suppose, expected by the 
South, that whatever acquisitions were made in tha 
gion would be added to the Blaveholding portion of the 
United States. Very little of accurate information was 
sssed of the real physical character^ either of Cali- 
fornia or New Mexico; and events have turned oul ai 
not expected; both California and New .Mexico are 
likely to come in as free; and therefore some degn 
disappointment and surprise has resulted. In other 
words, it is obvious that the question which has so long 
harassed the country, and at some times very seriously 
alarmed the minds of wise and good men, has come 
upon us for a fresh discussion; the question of slavery 
in these United States. 

Now, sir, I propose, perhaps at the expense of s 
detail and consequent detention of the Senate, to review- 
historically this question, which, partly in consequence 
of its own importance, and parti}-, perhaps mostly, 
in consequence of the manner in which it ! 
discussed in one and the other portion of the country, 
has been a source of so much alienation and unkind 
feeling. 

TVe all know, sir, that slavery has existed in the world 
from time immemorial. There w 3 slavery, in the earli- 
est periods of history, in the ital nations. Th< • 
was slavery among the Jews; the theocratic government 
of that people ordained no injunction againsl it. T 
was slavery among the Greeks ; and the ingenious phi- 
losophy of the Greeks found, or sought to find, a justifi- 



12 

cation for it exactly upon the grounds which have been 
assumed for such a justification in this country; that is, 
a natural " and original difference among the races of 
mankind, and the inferiority of the black or colored race 
to the white. The Greeks justified their system of 
slavery upon that idea, precisely. They held the 
African, and in some parts the Asiatic, tribes to be in- 
ferior to the white. race; but they did not show, I think, 
by any close process of logic, that, if this were true, the 
more intelligent and the stronger had therefore a right 
to subjugate the weaker. 

The more manly philosophy and jurisprudence of the 
Romans placed the justification of slavery on entirely 
different grounds. 

The Roman jurists, from the first and down to the 
fall of the empire, admitted that slavery was against the 
natural law, by which, as they maintained, all men of 
whatsoever clime, color, or capacity were equal ; but they 
justified slavery, first, upon the ground and authority of 
the law of nations, arguing, and arguing truly, that at 
that day the conventional law of nations admitted that 
captives in war, whose lives, according to the notions of 
the times, were at the absolute disposal of the captors, 
might, in exchange for exemption from death, be made 
slaves for life, and that such servitude might descend to 
their posterity. The jurists of Rome also maintained 
that by the civil law there might be servitude or slavery, 
personal and hereditary ; first, by the voluntary act of 
an individual who might sell himself into slavery; se- 
condly, by his being received into a state of slavery by his 



L3 

creditors in satisfaction of his debts; and, thirdly, by being 

placed in a state of servitude or slavery fur crime. At 
the introduction of Christianity, the Roman world was 
full of slaves, and I suppose there is to be found no in- 
junction against that relation between man and man, rn 
the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or of any of 
his apostles. The object of the instruction Imparted to 
mankind by the founder of Christianity was to touch the 
heart, purify the soul, and improve the lives of individual 
men. That object went directly to the first fountain of 
all political and all social relations of the human ra< 
well as of all true religious feeling, the individual heart 
and mind of man. 

Now, sir, upon the general nature, and character, and 
influence of slavery, there exists a wide difference be- 
tween the Northern portion of this country and the 
Southern. It is said on the one side that, if not the sub- 
ject of' any injunction or direct prohibition in the New- 
Testament, slavery is a wrong; that it is founded merely 
in the right of the strongest; and that it is an oppres- 
sion, like unjust wars, like all those conflicts by which a 
mighty nation subjects a weaker nation to its will ; and 
that slavery, in its nature, whatever may be said of it in 
the modifications which have taken place, is not in fact 
according to the meek spirit of the Gospel. It is not 
"kindly affectioned;" it does not "seek another's, and 
not its own;" it does not "let the oppressed go &ee. M 
These are sentiments that are cherished, and recently 
with greatly augmented force, among the people of the 
Northern States. Thev have taken hold of the religious 



14 

sentiment of that part of the country, as they have more or 
less taken hold of the religious feelings of a considerable 
portion of mankind. The South, upon the other side, 
having been accustomed to this relation between the two 
races all their lives, from their birth ; having been taught, 
in general, to treat the subjects of this bondage with care 
and kindness, and I believe, in general, feeling for them 
great care and kindness, have not taken the view of the 
subject which I have mentioned. There are thousands 
of religious men, with consciences as tender as any of 
their brethren at the North, who do not see the unlaw- 
fulness of slavery ; and there are more thousands, perhaps, 
that, whatsoever they may think of it in its origin, and 
as a matter depending upon natural right, yet take things 
as they are, and, finding slavery to be an established re- 
lation of the society in which they live, can see no way 
in which, let their opinions on the abstract question be 
what they may, it is in the power of the present gene- 
ration to relieve themselves from this relation. And, in 
this respect, candor obliges me to say, that I believe they 
are just as conscientious, many of them, and the reli- 
gious people, all of them, as they are in the North who 
hold different opinions. 

Why, sir, the honorable Senator from South Carolina, 
the other day, alluded to the separation of that great 
religious community, the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
That separation was brought about by differences of 
opinion upon this particular subject of slavery. I felt 
great concern, as that dispute went on, about the result ; 
and I was in hopes that the difference of opinion might 



15 

be adjusted, because I Looked upon thai religious deno- 
mination as one of the greal props of religion and mon 
throughout the -whole country, from Maine to G< 
and westward, to our utmost western boundary. The 

result was against my wishes and against my ho] 
I have read all their proceedings, and all their argu- 
ments; but I have never ye1 been ahle to come to the 
conclusion that there was any real ground for thai sepa- 
ration; in other words, that any good could be produced 
by that separation. 1 must say 1 think there Wi - 
want of candor and charity. Sir, when a question of 
this kind seizes on the religious sentiments of man- 
kind, and comes to be discussed in religious assemblies of 
the clergy and laity, there is always to be expected, or 
always to be feared, a great degree of excitement. It 
is in the nature of man, manifested by his whole history, 
that religious disputes are apt to become warm, as m< 
strength of conviction is proportionate to their views of 
the magnitude of the questions. In all such dispul 
there will sometimes men be found with whom every- 
thing is absolute, absolutely wrong, or absolutely light. 
They see the right clearly; they think others ought so to 
see it, and they are disposed to establish a broad line of 
distinction between what is right, and what is wrong. 
And they are not seldom willing to establish that line 
upon their own convictions of truth and justice; and 
are ready to mark and guard it, by placing along it a 
series of dogmas, as lines of boundary on the earth's sur- 
face are marked by posts and stones. There are men who, 
with clear perceptions, as they think, of their own duty, 



16 

do not see how too hot a pursuit of one duty may involve 
them in the violation of others, or how too warm an em- 
bracement of one truth may lead to a disregard of other 
truths equally important. As I heard it stated strongly, 
not many days ago, these persons are disposed to mount 
upon some particular duty as upon a war horse, and to 
drive, furiously on and upon, and over, aril other duties that 
may stand in the way. There are men who, in times of 
that sort, and in disputes of that sort, are of opinion that 
human duties may be ascertained with the exactness of 
mathematics. They deal with morals as with mathema- 
tics ; and they think what is right may be distinguished 
from what is wrong, with the precision of an algebraic 
equation. They have, therefore, none too much charity 
towards others who differ from them. They are apt, too, 
to think that nothing is good but what is perfect, and 
that there are no compromises or modifications to be 
made in submission to difference of opinion, or in defer- 
ence to other men's judgment. If their perspicacious 
vision enables them to detect a spot on the face of the 
sun, they think that a good reason why the sun should 
be struck down from heaven. They prefer the chance 
of running into utter darkness, to living in heavenly 
light, if that heavenly light be not absolutely without 
any imperfection. There are impatient men, too impa- 
tient always to give heed to the admonition of St. Paul, 
" that we are not to do evil that good may come ;" too 
impatient to wait for the slow progress of moral causes 
in the improvement of mankind. They do not remem- 
ber that the doctrines and the miracles of Jesus Christ 



17 

have, in eighteen hundred years, converted onlj a small 
portion of the human racej and amen- the nations thai 
are converted to Christianity, they forgel ho^ many vh 
and crimes, public and private, still prevail, and th 
many of them, public crimes especially, which a 
clearly offences against the Christian religion, pass with- 
out exciting particular indignation. Thus war.- an 

waged, and unjust wars. I do not <l-\i\ that there ma;. 

be just wars. Then- certainly are; bui it was tin- re- 
mark of an eminent person, uol many years ago, on the 
other side of the Atlantic, that it was one of the greal 
reproaches to human nature, thai wars were sometimes 
just. The defence of nations sometimes causes a just 
war against the injustice of other nations. 

Now, sir, in this state of sentiment upon the general 
nature of slavery lies the cause of a greal pari ol 
those unhappy divisions, exasperations, and reproaches, 
which find vent and support in different parts of the 
Union. Slavery does exist in the United State.-. It 
did exist in the States before the adoption of this Con- 
stitution, and at that time. 

And now let us consider, sir, for a moment, what was 
the state of sentiment, North and South, in regard to 
slavery, at the time this Constitution was adopted. A 
remarkable change has taken place since: bui what did 
the wise and great men of all parts of the country think 
of slavery, then? In what estimation did they hold it 
at the time when this Constitution was adopted? Now, 
it will be found, sir, if we will carry ourselves by his- 
torical research back to that day. and ascertain me 
■1 



18 

opinions by authentic records still existing among us, 
that there was no great diversity of opinion between 
the North and the South, upon the subject of slavery. 
And it will be found that both parts of the country held 
it equally an evil, a moral and political evil. It will 
not be found that, either at the North or at the South, 
there was much, though there was some, invective 
against slavery as inhuman and cruel. The great ground 
of objection to it was political; that it weakened the 
social fabric ; that, taking the place of free labor, society 
became less strong and labor was less productive ; and, 
therefore, we find from all the eminent men of the time 
the clearest expression of their opinion that slavery was 
an evil. And they ascribed its existence here, not 
without truth, and not without some acerbity of temper 
and force of language, to the injurious policy of the 
mother country, who, to favor the navigator, had entailed 
these evils upon the colonies. I need hardly refer, sir, 
particularly to the publications of the day. They are 
matters of history on the record. The eminent men, the 
most eminent men, and nearly all the conspicuous politi- 
cians of the South, held the same sentiments ; that slavery 
was an evil, a blight, a blast, a mildew, a scourge, and 
a curse. There are no terms of reprobation of slavery 
so vehement in the North of that day as in the South. 
The North was not so much excited against it as the 
South ; and the reason is, I suppose, because there was 
much less of it at the North, and the people did not see, 
or think they saw, the evils so prominently as they were 
seen, or thought to be seen, at the South. 



ID 

Then, Bir, when tliis Constitution was framed, this 

was the light in Avliicli the Couwution viewed it. T1 
Convention reflected the judgment and sentiments of 
the great men of the South. A member of the 

House, whom I have not the honor to know, in an 
speech, has collected extracts from these public d 

ments. They prove the truth of what I am saying, 
and the question then was, how to deal with it. and 
how to deal with it as an evil? Well, they cai 
this general result. They thought that slavery could 

not be continued in the country, if the importation of 
slaves were made to cease, and therefore they | r rvided 
that after a certain period the importation might be 
prevented, by the act of the new government. Twenty 
years was proposed by some gentleman, a Northern 
gentleman, I think, and many of the Southern gentle- 
men opposed it as being too long. Mr. Madison, espe- 
cially, was something warm against it. He said it would 
bring too much of this mischief into the country to 
allow the importation of slaves for such a period. Be- 
cause we must take along with us, in the whole of this 
discussion, when we are considering the sentiments and 
opinions in which the constitutional provision originated, 
that the conviction of all men was, that if the importa- 
tion of slaves ceased, the white race would multiply 
faster than the black race, and that slavery would there- 
fore gradually wear out and expire. It may not be 
improper here to allude to that, I had almost said, cele- 
brated opinion of Mr. Madison. You observe, sir. that 
the term slave, or slavery, is not used in the Constitution. 



20 

The Constitution does not require that "fugitive slaves'' 
shall be delivered up. It requires that "persons bound 
to service in one State, and escaping into another, shall 
be delivered up." Mr. Madison opposed the introduction 
of the term slave, or slavery, into the Constitution ; for. 
he said that he did not wish to see it recognized by the 
Constitution of the United States of America, that there 
could be property in men. Now, sir, all this took place 
at the Convention in 1787; but, connected with this, 
concurrent and cotemporaneous, is another important 
transaction not sufficiently attended to. The Convention 
for framing this Constitution assembled in Philadelphia 
in May, and sat until September, 1787. During all 
that time, the Congress of the United States was in ses- 
sion at New York. It was a matter of design, as we 
know, that the Convention should not assemble in the 
same city where Congress was holding its sessions. Al- 
most all the public men of the country, therefore, of 
distinction and eminence, were in one or the other of 
these two assemblies ; and I think it happened, in some 
instances, that the same gentlemen were members of 
both. If I mistake not, such was the case of Mr. Kufus 
King, then a member of Congress from Massachusetts, 
and at the same time a member of the Convention to 
frame the Constitution. Now, it was in the summer 
of 1787, the very time when the Convention in Phila- 
delphia was framing this Constitution, that the Con- 
gress in New York was framing the ordinance of 17S7. 
They passed that ordinance on the loth July, 1787, at 
New York, the very month, perhaps the very day. on 



2] 

which these questions, aboul the importation i 
and the character of slavery, were debated in the I 
vention at Philadelphia. And, so far as we can dow 
learn, there was a perfecl concurrence of opinit 
tween these respective bodies; and it resulted in 
ordinance ofJITST, excluding slavery ae to all the 
ritory over which the Congress of the United Si 
had jurisdiction, and thai was, all the territory north- 
west of the Ohio. Three years before, Virginia and 
other States had made a cession of thai greal territory 
to the United States. And a mosl magnificenl i 
was. I never reflect upon it without a disposition I 
honor and justice, and justice would be the hi. 
honor, to Virginia, for the cession of her northwe 
territory. I will say, sir, it is one of her fairesl claims 
to the respect and gratitude of the United States, and 
that, perhaps, it is only second to that i claim 

which attaches to her; that, from her counsels, and 
from the intelligence and patriotism of her lei 
statesmen, proceeded the first idea put into practi 
the formation of a general constitution of the United 
States. Now, sir, the ordinance of 1787 was 
thus to the whole territory over which the < 
of the United States had jurisdiction. It was ad- 
two years before the Constitution of th Dni 
went into operation ; because the ordinance too effect 
immediately on its passage, while the Constitution of 
tho United States, having been framed, was I 
to the States to be adopted by their C 
then a government was to be organized under it. 
ordinance, then, was in operation and force when the 



99 



Constitution was adopted and the Government put in 
motion, in April, 1789. 

Mr. President, three things are quite clear as histori- 
cal truths. One is, that there was an expectation that, 
on the ceasing of the importation of slaves from Africa, 
slavery would begin to run out here. That was hoped 
and expected. Another is, that, as far as there was any 
power in Congress to prevent the spread of slavery in 
the United States, that power was executed in the most 
absolute manner, and to the fullest extent. An honora- 
ble member, whose health does not allow him to be here 
to-day — 

A Senator. He is here. (Referring to Mr. Calhoun.) 
Mr. Webster. I am very happy to hear that he is ; 
may he long be here, and in the enjoyment of health to 
serve his country ! The honorable member said, the 
other day, that he considered this ordinance as the first, 
in the series of measures, calculated to enfeeble the 
South, and deprive them of their just participation in the 
benefits and privileges of this government. He says very 
properly that it was enacted under the old confedera- 
tion and before this Constitution .went into effect ; but, 
my present purpose is only to say, Mr. President, that 
it was established with the entire and unanimous con- 
currence of the whole South. Why, there it stands ! 
The vote of every State in the Union was unanimous in 
favor of the ordinance, with the exception of a single 
individual vote, and that individual vote was given by a 
Northern man. But, sir, the ordinance abolishing, or 
rather prohibiting, slavery northwest of the Ohio, has 
the hand and seal of every Southern member in Con- 



28 

gress. So this ordinance was do aggression of the N 

on the South. 

The other and third clear historical truth is, thai the 
Convention meant to leave slavery, in the State . 
they found it, entirely under the authority and control 
of the States themselves. 

This was the state of things, sir, and this the ' 
opinion, under which those very important matters wen- 
arranged, and those three important things done; that 
is, the establishment of the Constitution with a rec 
tion of slavery as it existed in the States; the establish- 
ment of the ordinance prohibiting, to the full extent of 
all territory owned by the United States, the introduc- 
tion of slavery into that territory, while leaving to t In- 
states all power over slavery in their own limits; and 
creating a power, in the new government, to put an end 
to the importation of slaves, after a limited period. And 
here, sir, we may pause. We may reflect for a moment 
upon the entire coincidence and concurrence of senti- 
ment, between the North and the South, upon all th< ae 
questions, at the period of the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion. But opinions, sir, have changed, greatly changed, 
changed North, and changed South. Slavery la not re- 
garded in the South now as it was then. I see an h 
able member of this body paying me the honor of listening 
to my remarks (Mr. Mason) ; he brings to me. sir, freshly 
and vividly, what I have learned of his great ancestor, 
so much distinguished in his day and generation, bo 
worthy to be succeeded by so worthy a grandson, with 
all the sentiments he expressed in the Conventio 
Philadelphia. 



24 

Here we may pause. There was, if not an entire 
unanimity, a general concurrence of sentiment, running 
through the whole community, and especially entertained 
by the eminent men of all parts of the country. But 
soon a change began, at the North and the South, and a 
severance of opinion showed itself; the North growing 
much more warm and strong against slavery, and the 
South growing much more warm and strong in its sup- 
port. Sir, there is no generation of mankind whose 
opinions are not subject to be influenced by what ap- 
pears to them to be their present, emergent, and exigent 
interests. I impute to the South no particularly selfish 
view in the change which has come over her. I impute 
to her certainly no dishonest view. All that has hap- 
pened has been natural. It has followed those causes 
which always influence the human mind and operate 
upon it. What, then, have been the causes which have 
created so new a feeling in favor of slavery in the South, 
which have changed the whole nomenclature of the 
South on that subject, so that, from being thought and 
described in the terms I have mentioned and will not- 
repeat, it has now become an institution, a cherished in- 
stitution in that quarter; no evil, no scourge, but a great 
religious, social, and moral blessing, as I think. I have 
heard it latterly spoken of? I suppose this, sir, is owing 
to the sudden uprising and rapid growth of the COTTON 
plantations of the South. So far as any motive consist- 
ent with honor, justice, and general judgment could act. 
it was the COTTON interest that gave a new desire to 
promote slavery, to spread it, and to use its labor. I 



■1> 



again say that that was produced by causes which 
musl always expect to produce like effects; the wh 
interest of the South became connected, more or le 
with it. If we lookback to the history of the commei 
of this country at the early years of this government, 
what were our exports? Cotton was hardly, or but to 
very limited extent, known. The tables will Bhow thai 
the exports of cotton for the years L790 and I 7'.' I rare 
not more than forty or fifty thousand dollars a year. [I 
has gone on increasing rapidly, until the whole crop m 
now, perhaps, in a season of great product and high prices, 
amount to a hundred millions of dollars. In the years 
I have mentioned, there was more of wax. more of in- 
digo, more of rice, more of almost every article of exp 
from the South, than of cotton. I think it is true 
when Mr. Jay negotiated the treaty of 171) 1 with Eng- 
land, that he did not know that cotton was exported 
all from the United States; and I have heard it -aid. als< . 
that the cnstom-house in London refused to admit cotton, 
upon an allegation that it could not he an Americ 
production, there being, as they supposed, ao cotl 
raised in America. They would hardly think so now ! 

Well, sir, we know what followed. The age of cotton 
became the golden age of our Southern brethren. It 
gratified their desire for improvement and accumulation, 
at the same time that it excited it. The desire gre* 
what it fed upon, and there soon came to he a: 
ness for other territory, a new area or new areas, foi the 
cultivation of the cotton crop; and measures Leading to 
this result were brought about rapidly, one after another. 
under the^lcad of Southern men at the head of the 



26 

Government, they having a majority in both branches 
to accomplish their ends. The honorable member from 
South Carolina observed that there has been a majority 
all along in favor of the North. If that be true, sir, the 
North has acted either very liberally and kindly, or very 
weakly; for they never exercised that majority effi- 
ciently five times in the history of the Government, 
when a division, or trial of strength, arose. Never. 
Whether they were out-generaled, or whether it was 
owing to other causes, I shall not stop to consider; but 
no man acquainted with the history of the country 
can deny, that the general lead in the politics of the 
country for three-fourths of the period that has elapsed 
since the adoption of the Constitution, has been a South- 
em lead. In 1802, in pursuit of the idea of opening a 
new cotton region, the United States obtained a cession 
from Georgia of the whole of her western territory, now 
embracing the rich and growing State of Alabama. In 
1803, Louisiana was purchased from France, out of 
which the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri, 
have been framed, as slaveholding States. In 1819, the 
cession of Florida was made, bringing in another region 
of slaveholding property and territory. Sir, the honorable 
member from South Carolina thought he saw in certain 
operations of the Government, such as the manner of col- 
lecting the revenue, and the tendency of measures cal- 
culated to promote emigration into the country, what ac- 
counts for the more rapid growth of the North than the 
South. Hi- ascribes that more rapid growth, not to the 
operation of time, but to the system of government, 
and administration, established under this Constitution. 



27 

That Is matter of opinion. To a certain extern* it may l*j 
true; but it does sec in to me that if any operation of the 
Government could be abown in any degree to have pro- 
moted the population, and growth, and wealth of the 

North, it is much more sure that there arc sundry im- 
portant and distinct operations of the Government, about 
which no man can doubt, tedding to promote, and which 
absolutely have promoted, the increase of the slave in- 
terest and the slave territory of the South. Allow me 
to say that it was not time that brought in Louisiana; 
it was the act of men. It was not time that brought in 
Florida; it was the act of men. And lastly, sir, to com- 
plete those acts of men which have contributed so much 
to enlarge the area and the sphere of the institution of 
slavery, Texas, great and vast and illimitable Texas, 
was added to the Union as a slave. State in 1846; and 
that, sir, pretty much closed the whole chapter, and set- 
tled the whole account. That closed the whole chapter, 
that settled the whole account, because the annexation 
of Texas, upon the conditions and under the guaranties 
upon which she was admitted, did not leave within the 
control of this Government an acre of land, capable of 
being cultivated by slave labor, between this Capitol and 
the Rio Grande or the Nueces, or whatever is the proper 
boundary of Texas, not an acre. From that moment, 
the whole country, from this place to the western bound- 
ary of Texas, was fixed, pledged, fastened, decided, to 
be slave territory forever, by the solemn guaranties of 
law. And I now say, sir, as the proposition upon which 
I stand this day, and upon the truth and firmness of 
which I intend to act until it is overthrown, that th 



28 

is not at this moment within the United States, or any 
territory of the United States, a single foot of land, the 
character of which, in regard to its being free-soil terri- 
tory or slave territory, is not fixed by some law, and 
some irrepealable law, beyond the power of the action 
of the Government. Now, is it not so with respect to 
Texas ? Why it is most manifestly so. The honorable 
member from South Carolina, at the time of the admis- 
sion of Texas, held an important post in the Executive 
Department of the Government; he was Secretary of 
State. Another eminent person of great activity and 
adroitness in affairs, I mean the late Secretary of the 
Treasury (Mr. Walker), was a conspicuous member of 
this body, and took the lead in the business of annexa- 
tion, in co-operation with the Secretary of State; and I 
must say that they did their business faithfully and tho- 
roughly; there was no botch left in it. They rounded 
it off, and made as close joiner-work as ever was ex- 
hibited. Resolutions of annexation were brought into 
Congress, fitly joined together, compact, firm, efficient, 
conclusive upon the great object which they had in 
view, and those resolutions passed. 

Allow me to read a part of these resolutions. It is 
the third clause of the second section of the resolution 
of the 1st March, 1845, for the admission of Texas, 
which applies to this part of the case. That clause 
reads in these words : — 

" New States, of convenient size, not exceeding four 
in number, in addition to said State of Texas, and hav- 
ing sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent 
of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, 



2! 

* 

which shall be entitled to admission under the piw i 
of the Federal Constitution. And such States ac maj 
be formed out of that portion of said territorj Lying 
south of thirty-six degrees thirtj minutes north Latitude, 
commonly known as the Missouri Compromise Line, shall 
be admitted into the Union with or without Blavery, ae 
the people of each State asking admission may d< 
and in such State or States as shall be formed o 
said territory north of said Missouri Compromise Line, 
slavery or involuntary servitude (excepl for crime) -hall 
be prohibited." 

Now what is here stipulated, enacted, secured? It 
is, that all Texas south of 36° 30', which is nearly the 
whole of it, shall be admitted into the Union as a alavt 
State. It was a slave State, and therefore came in as a 
slave State; and the guaranty is. thai new States shall 
be made out of it, and that such States as are formed 
out of that portion of Texas lying south of 36 c 30' mai 
come in as slave States to the number of four, in addi- 
tion to the State then in existent . and admitted at that 
time by these resolutions. I know no form of Legisla- 
tion which can strengthen this. 1 know no mode of 
recognition that can add a tittle of weight to it. I 
listened respectfully to the resolutions of my honorable 
friend from Tennessee (Mr. Bell). lie proposed t<> re- 
cognize that stipulation with Texas. Hut any additional 
recognition would weaken the force of it; because it 
stands here on the ground of a contract, a thin- y\^\w 
for a consideration. It is a law founded on a contract 
with Texas, and designed to carry that contract into 
effect. A recognition, now. founded not on any c 



30 

deration or any contract, would not be so strong as it 
now stands on the face of the resolution. Now I know 
no way, I candidly confess, in which this Government, 
acting in good faith, as I trust it always will, can relieve 
itself from that stipulation and pledge, by any honest 
course of legislation whatever. And, therefore, I say 
again that, so far as Texas is concerned, in the whole of 
Texas south of 36° 30', which, I suppose, embraces all 
the territory capable of slave cultivation, there is no 
land, not an acre, the character of which is not established 
by law, a law which cannot be repealed without the vio- 
lation of a contract, and plain disregard of the public 
faith. 

I hope, sir, it is now apparent that my proposition, 
so far as it respects Texas, has been maintained; and 
that the provision in this article is clear and absolute; and 
it has been well suggested by my friend from Rhode 
Island that that part of Texas which lies north of 
thirty-four degrees of north latitude and which may be 
formed into free States, is dependent, in like manner, 
upon the consent of Texas, herself a slave State. 

Well, now, sir, how came this ? How came it to pass, 
that within these walls, where it is said by the honor- 
able member from South Carolina that the free States 
have always had a majority, this resolution of annexa- 
tion, such as I have described it, found a majority in 
both Houses of Congress ? Why, sir, it found that ma- 
jority by the great number of Northern votes added to 
the entire Southern vote, or at least nearly the whole 
of the Southern votes. The aggregate was made up 
of Northern, and Southern votes. In the House of 



..1 

Representatives it stood, 1 think, about eighty Southern 
votes for the admission of Texas, and about fifty North- 
ern votes for the admission of Texas. In the Senate 
the vote stood for the admission of Texas twenty-seven, 

and twenty-five against it; and of those twenty-! 
votes, constituting a majority for the admission of T 
in this body, no less than thirteen came from the free 
States, and four of them Were from New England. T : 
whole of these thirteen Senators, constituting, within i 
fraction, you see, one-half of all the votes in this body 
for the admission of Texas, with its immeasurable ex- 
tent of slave territory, were sent here by free States. 

Sir, there is not so remarkable a chapter in our his- 
tory of political events, political parties, and political 
men, as is afforded by this measure for the admission of 
Texas, w r ith this immense territory, that a bird cannot 
fly over in a week. [Laughter.] Sir, New England, 
with some of her own votes, supported this measure 
Three-fourths of the votes of liberty-loving Connecticut 
were given for it, in the other House; and one-half here 
There was one vote for it in Maine, but I am happy to 
say not the vote of the honorable member who addressed 
the Senate the day before }^esterday (Mr. IIamlix), and 
who was then a Representative from Maine in the 
House of Representatives: but there was a vote or 
two from Maine, ay, and there was one vote for it from 
Massachusetts, given by a gentleman then represent- 
ing, and now living in, the district in which the pre- 
valence to some extent of free-soil sentiment for a cou- 
ple of years or so has defeated the choice of any in em- 
ber to represent it in Congress. Sir, that body of North- 



32 

em and Eastern men, who gave those votes at that time, 
are now seen taking upon themselves, in the nomen- 
clature of politics, the appellation of the Northern 
Democracy. They undertook to wield the destinies 
of this empire, if I may call a republic an empire, and 
their policy was, and they persisted in it, to bring into 
this country, and under this government, all the ter- 
ritory they could. They did- it under pledges, abso- 
lute pledges to the slave interest in the case of Texas, 
and afterwards they lent their aid in bringing in these 
new conquests to take their chance for slavery or free- 
dom. My honorable friend from Georgia, in March, 
1847, moved the Senate to declare that the war ought 
not to be prosecuted for acquisition, for conquest, for 
the dismemberment of Mexico. The same Northern 
Democracy entirely voted against it. He did not get a 
vote from them. It suited the views, the patriotism, the 
elevated sentiments of the Northern Democracy to bring 
in a world here, among the mountains and valleys of 
California and New Mexico, or any other part of Mexico, 
and then quarrel about it ; to bring it in, and then endea- 
vor to put upon it the saving grace of the Wilmot pro- 
viso. There were two eminent and highly respectable 
gentlemen from the North and East, then leading gentle- 
men in the Senate — I refer, and I do so with entire re- 
spect, for I entertain for both of those gentlemen, in 
general, high regard, to Mr. Dix. of New York, and Mr. 
Niles, of Connecticut — who both voted for the admission 
of Texas. They would not have that vote any other way 
than as it stood; and they would have it as it did stand. 
I speak of the vote upon the annexation of Texas. 



Those two gentlemen would have the resolution, oi 

nexation just as it is, ami thej voted for it jusl as if 
and their eyes were all open to its true character. The 
honorable member who addressed us the other daj &01 
South Carolina, was then Secretary of State. Biscorre- 
spondence with Mr. Murphy, the charge* d'affain 
United States in Texas, had been published. That cor- 
respondence was all before those gentlemen, and tb 
Secretary had the boldness and candor to avow in that 
correspondence that the great object sougb.1 by the an- 
nexation of Texas was to strengthen the slaw inter 
the South. Why. sir. he said BO, in so many words — 

Mr. Calhoun. Will the honorable Senator permii - 

to interrupt him for a moment '. 

Mr. Webster. Certainly. 

Mr. Caliioux. I am very reluctant to interrupt 
honorable gentleman: but. upon a point of BO much im- 
portance, I deem it right to put myself rectus in curia. 
I did not put it upon the ground assumed by the Sena- 
tor. I put it upon this ground: that Great Britain had 
announced to this country, in so many words, that her 
object was to abolish slavery in Texas, and tin- 
Texas to accomplish the abolishment of slavery in the 
United States and the world. The -round 1 put it 01 
was. that it would make an exposed frontier, and, 
Great Britain succeeded in herobject, it wonld he impos- 
sible that that frontier could 1» secured against the ag- 
gressions of the abolitionists: and that this Government 
was bound, under the guaranties of the Constitution, t- 
protect us against Buch a state of things 

o 
O 



34 

Mr. Webster. That comes, I suppose, sir, to exactly 
the same thing. It was, that Texas must be obtained 
for the security of the slave interest of the South. 

Mr. Calhoun. Another view is very distinctly given. 

Mr. Webster. That was the object set forth in the cor- 
respondence of a worthy gentleman not now living, who 
preceded the honorable member from South Carolina in 
the Department of State. There repose on the files of the 
Department of State, as I have occasion to know, strong 
letters from Mr. Upshur to the United States minister in 
England, and I believe there are some to the same min- 
ister from the honorable Senator himself, asserting to this 
effect the sentiments of this Government, viz : that Great 
Britain was expected not to interfere to take Texas out 
of the hands of its then existing Government, and make 
it a free country. But my argument, my suggestion is 
this ; that those gentlemen who composed the Northern 
Democracy when Texas was brought into the Union, 
saw, with all their eyes, that it was brought in as a slave 
country, and brought in for the purpose of being main- 
tained as slave territory to the Greek Kalends. I rather 
think the honorable gentleman who was then Secretary 
of State might, in some of his correspondence with Mr. 
Murphy, have suggested that it was not expedient to say 
too much about this object, lest it should create some 
alarm. At any rate, Mr. Murphy wrote to him, that 
England was anxious to get rid of the constitution of 
Texas, because it was a constitution establishing slavery ; 
and that what the United States had to do, was to aid 
the people of Texas in upholding their constitution ; but 



that nothing should be said, which should offend the 
fanatical men of the North. But, but, the honorable n 
ber did avow this objeel himself, openly, boldly, 
manfully ; he did not disguise his conduct, or his motives. 

Mr. Calhoun. Never, never. 

Mr. Webster. What he means he is very apl to say. 

Mr. Calhoun. Always, always. 

Mr. Webster. And I honor him for it. This admis- 
sion of Texas was in 1845. Then, in {S^7,flagrcmU beUo 
between the United States and Mexico, the proposition I 
have mentioned was broughl forward by my friend from 
Georgia, and the Northern Democracy voted Btraighl 
ahead against it. Their remedy was to apply to the ac- 
quisitions, after they should come in, theWilmot proviso. 
What follows? These two gentlemen, worthy and honor- 
able and influential men, and if they had not been they 
could not have carried the measure, these two gentle: 
members of this body, brought in Texas, and by their 
votes they also prevented the passage of the resolution 
of the honorable member from Georgia, and then they 
went home and took the lead in the Pree-soi] party. And 
there they stand, sir! They leave us here, bound to ho- 
nour and conscience by the resolutions of annexation; 
they leave us here, to take the odium of fulfilling the 
obligations in favor of slavery, which they voted us into, 
or else the greater odium of violating those obligations, 
while they are at home making capital and rousing 
speeches for free-soil and no slavery. [Laughter.] And. 
therefore, I say, sir, that there Is not a chapter in our 
history, respecting public measures and public men. more 
full of what should create surprise, more full of what does 



36 

create, in my mind, extreme mortification, than that of 
the conduct of this Northern Democracy. 

Mr. President, sometimes, when a man is -found in a 
new relation to things around him and to other men, he 
says the world has changed, and that he has not changed. 
I believe, sir, that our self-respect leads us often to make 
this declaration in regard to ourselves, when it is not 
exactly true. An individual is more apt to change, per- 
haps, than all the world around him. But, under the 
present circumstances, and under the responsibility which 
I know I incur by what I am now stating here, I feel at 
liberty to recur to the various expressions and statements, 
made at various times, of my own opinions and resolu- 
tions respecting the admission of Texas, and all that has 
followed. Sir, as early as 1836, or in the early part of 
1837, there was conversation and eorrespondence between 
myself and some private friends, on this project of annex- 
ing Texas to the United States ; and an honorable gentle- 
man with whom I have had a long acquaintance, a friend 
of mine, now perhaps in this chamber, I mean General 
Hamilton, of South Carolina, was knowing to that corre- 
spondence. I had voted for the recognition of Texan in- 
dependence, because I believed it was an existing fact. 
surprising and astonishing as it was. and I wished well to 
the new republic : but I manifested from the first utter 
opposition to bringing her. with her slave territory, into 
the Union. I happened, in 1 837, to meet friends in New 
York, on some political occasion, and I then stated my 
sentiments upon the subject. It was the first time that I 
had occasion to advert to it; and T will ask a friend near 
me to do me the favor to read an extract from the 



37 

h. for the Senate may find it rather tedious to listen 
to the whole of it. Jt was delivered in Niblo's Garden, 
in 1837. 

Mr. Greene then read the following extract from 
speech of Mr. Webster, to which he referred : 

•• Gentlemen, we all see that, by whomsoever pi i 
Texas is likely to be a slaveholding country ; and I 
frankly avow my entire unwillingness to do any thing 
which shall extend the Blavery of the African race on 
this continent, or add other slaveholding States to the 
Union. 

"When I say that I regard slavery in itself as a g] 
moral, social, and political evil, I only use language 
which has been adopted by distinguished men, th< m- 
selves citizens of slaveholding States. 

"I shall do nothing, therefore, to favor or encourage 
its further extension. We have slavery already among 
us. The Constitution found it anion- us; it recognised 
it, and gave it solemn guaranties. 

"To the full extent of these guaranties, we are all 
bound in honor, injustice, and by the Constitution. All 
the stipulations contained in the Constitution in lav. a- of 
the slaveholding States, which are already in the CFni 
ought to be fulfilled, and. so far as depends on me, shall 
be fulfilled in the fulness of their spirit, and to the exact- 
ness of their letter. Slavery, as it exists in the S: 
is beyond the reach of Congress. It is a concern of 
the States themselves. They have never submi 
it to Congress and Congress has no rightful p 
over it. 

"I shall concur, therefore, in no act. no measure, DO 



38 

menace, no indication of purpose, which shall interfere or 
threaten to interfere with the exclusive authority of the 
several States over the subject of slavery, as it exists 
within their respective limits. All this appears to me to 
be matter of plain and imperative duty. 

" But when we come to speak of admitting new States, 
the subject assumes an entirely different aspect. Our 
rights and our duties are then both different. * * :;: 

" I sec, therefore, no political necessity for the annexa- 
tion of Texas to the Union — no advantage to be derived 
from it; and objections to it of a strong, and, in my 
judgment, of a decisive character." 

Mr. Webster. I have nothing, sir, to add to, nor to 
take from, those sentiments. That speech, the Senate 
will perceive, was in 1837. The purpose of immediately 
annexing Texas at that time was abandoned or postponed ; 
and it was not revived with any vigor for some years. In 
the meantime it had so happened that I had become a 
member of the Executive Administration, and was for a 
short period in the Department of State. The annexation 
of Texas was a subject of conversation, not confidential, 
with the President and heads of Departments, as well as 
with other public men. No serious attempt was then 
made, however, to bring it about. I left the Department 
of State in May, 1843, and shortly after I learned, though 
by means which were no way connected with official in- 
formation, that a design had been taken up of bring- 
ing Texas, with her slave territory and population, into 
this Union. I was in Washington at the time, and per- 
sons are now here who will remember that we had an 
arranged meeting for conversation upon it. I went home 



39 

to Massachusetts and proclaimed the existence of thai 
purpose, but I could gel oo audience, and but little atten- 
tion. Sonic did not believe it. and some were too much 
engaged in their own pursuits to give ii an? heed. The\ 
had gone to their farms, or to their merchandise, and it 
was impossible to arouse any Benthnente in New England 
or in Massachusetts, that should combine the two great 
political parties against this annexation ; and indeed there 
was no hope of bringing the Northern Democracy into 

that view, lor their leaning was all the other way. 

sir, even with Whigs, and leading Whigs, I am ashamed to 
say, there was a great indifference towards the admission 

of Texas, with slave territory into this Union. Th* 
project went on. I was then out of Congress. Th 
nexation resolutions passed the 1st of March, 184 o; the 
Legislature of Texas complied with the conditions and 
accepted the guaranties; for the phraseology of the lan- 
guage of the resolution is, that Texas i> t>» come in " upon 
the conditions and under the guaranties herein prescribed." 
I happened to be returned to the Senate in March, I 
and was here in December, 18 1~>. when the acceptance by 
Texas of the conditions proposed by Congress was commu- 
nicated to us by the President, and an act for the consum- 
mation of the connexion was laid before the two Bouses. 
The connexion was then not completed. A final law doing 
the deed of annexation, ultimately, had not been pa£ 
and when it was put upon its final passage bere, 1 expn 
my opposition to it. and recorded my vote in the negative : 
and there that vote stands, with the observations that 1 
made upon that occasion. It has happened that bel 
1837and this time, on various occasions andopportuD 



40 

I have expressed my entire opposition to the admission of 
slave States, or the acquisition of new slave territories, to 
be added to the United States. I know, sir, no change in 
my own sentiments, or my own purposes, in that respect. 
I will now again ask my friend from Rhode Island to 
read another extract from a speech of mine made at a 
Whig Convention in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the 
month of September, 1847. 

Mr. Greene here read the following extract : 

- We hear much just now of a panacea for the dangers 
and evils of slavery and slave annexation, which they call 
the ' Wilmot proviso? That certainly is a just sentiment, 
but it is not a sentiment to found any new party upon. 
It is not a sentiment on which Massachusetts Whigs differ. 
There is not a man in this hall who holds to it more firmly 
than I do, nor one who adheres to it more than another. 

" I feel some little interest in this matter, sir. Did not 
I commit myself in 1837 to the whole doctrine, fully, en- 
tirely ? And I must be permitted to say that I cannot 
quite consent that more recent discoverers should claim 
the merit and take out a patent. 

" I deny the priority of their invention. Allow me to 
say, sir, it is not their thunder. * * * 

- We are to use the first and last and every occasion 
which offers to oppose the extension of slave power. 

" But I speak of it here, as in Congress, as a political 
question, a question for statesmen to act upon. We must 
so regard it. I certainly do not mean to say that it is 
less important in a moral point of view, that it is not 
more important in many other points of view ; but, as a 

' Relator, or in any official capacity, I must look at 



11 

it, consider it. and decide it ae a matter of political 
action." 

Mr. Webster. On other occasions, in debates here, I 
have expressed my determination bo vote for no acquisi- 
tion, or cession, or annexation, North or South. East or 
West. My opinion has been, thai we have territory 
enough, and thai we should follow the Spartan maxim, 
•• Improve, adorn what you have, Beek no further." I 

think that it was in some observations thai I made 

On the three-million loan bill, that I avowed that Benti- 

ment. In short, sir. the sentiment ha- been avowed quite 
as often, in as many places, and before as man 
blies, as any humble Bentiments of mine ought to be 
avowed. 

But now, that, under certain conditions, Texas i< in. 
with all her territory, as a slave State, with a s >lemn 
pledge, also, that if she shall be divided into many States, 
those States may come in as slave States smith of 36 30', 
how are Ave to deal with this subject '.' I know no way 
of honest legislation, when the proper time comes for the 
enactment, but to carry into effect all that we have stipu- 
lated to do. I do not entirely agree with my honorable 
friend from Tennessee, (Mr. Bell,) that, a- >mm as the 
time conies when she is entitled to another representa- 
tive, we should create a new State. The rule in n . 
to it I take to be this: that, when we have created new 
States out of Territories, we have generally irone ujmih 
the idea that when there is population enough to form a 
State, sixty thousand or some such thin-, we would create 
a State; but it is quite a different thing when a State i< 
divided, and two or mon made out of it. It does 



42 

not follow, in such a case, that the same rule of appor- 
tionment should be applied. That, however, is a matter 
for the consideration of Congress, when the proper time 
arrives. I may not then be here. I may have no vote 
to give on the occasion, but I wish it to be distinctly under- 
stood, to-day, that, according to my view of the matter, this 
Government is solemnly pledged, by law and contract, to 
create new States out of Texas, with her consent, when 
her population shall justify and call for such a proceeding, 
and so far as such States are formed out of Texan terri- 
tory lying south of 36° 30', to let them come in as slave 
States. That is the meaning of the resolution which our 
friends, the Northern Democracy, have left us to fulfil ; 
and I, for one, mean to fulfil it, because I will not violate 
the faith of the Government. What I mean to say is, 
that the time for the admission of new States formed out 
of Texas, the number of such States, their boundaries, 
and the requisite amounts of population, and other things 
connected with the admission, are in the free discretion 
of Congress, except this, to wit, that when new States, 
formed out of Texas, are to be admitted, they have a 
right, by legal stipulation and contract, to come in as 
slave States. 

Now, as to California and New Mexico, I hold slavery 
to be excluded from those Territories by a law, even su- 
perior to that which admits and sanctions it in Texas. 
I mean the law of nature, of physical geography, the law 
of the formation of the earth. That law settles for ever, 
witli a strength beyond all terms of human enactment, 
that slavery cannot exisl in California or New Mexico. 
Understand nie.sir; I mean slavery as we regard it ; slaves 



in gross, of the colored race, transferable ly Bale and deli- 
very, like other property. 1 .-hall uot djecuw the point, 
but Leave it to the Learned gentlemen who have undertaken 
to discuss it; but [ suppose there is no slave of thai descrip- 
tion in California now. I understand that peoniem, a sort 
ofpenal servitude, exists there, or rather e sort of voluntary 
sale of a man and his oflspring for debt, m it is arranged 
and exists in some parta of ( lalifoxnia and some pvoi inces 
of Mexico. But what I mean to say is, that African bUv 
\ I'l-y. as we Bee it among us, is as utterly impossible to find 

itself, or to be found in California and New Mexico, as any 
other natural impossibility. California and New Mexico 
are Asiatic in their formation and scenery. They are 

composed of vast ridges of mountains of enormous height, 
with broken ridges and deep valleys. The sides of these 
mountains are barren, entirely barren; their tops capped 
by perennial snow. There may be in California, now 
made free by its constitution, and no doubt there are, 
some tracts of valuable land. But it is not bo in New 
Mexico. Pray, what ifi the evidence which every gentle- 
rnan must have obtained on this subject, from informa- 
tion sought by himself or communicated by other- I 
have inquired and read all 1 could find, in order to acquire 
information on this important question. What b there 
in New Mexico that could, by any possibility, induce any 
body to go there with slaves? There an- some narrow 
strips of tillable land on the borders of the rivers ; but 
the rivers themselves dry up. before midsummer is .-one. 
All that the people can do in that region, is to raise boom 
little articles, some little wheat for their tortillas, and all 
that by irrigation. And who expects to see a hundred 



44 

black men cultivating tobacco, corn, cotton, rice, or any 
thing else, on lands in New Mexico, made fertile only by 
irrigation ? I look upon it, therefore, as a fixed fact, to 
use an expression current at this day, that both Cali- 
fornia and New Mexico are destined to be free, so far as 
they are settled at all, which I believe, especially in re- 
gard to New Mexico, will be very little for a great length 
of time ; free by the arrangement of things by the Power 
above us. I have therefore to say, in this respect also, 
that this country is fixed for freedom, to as many persons 
as shall ever live in it, by as irrepealable and more irre- 
pealable a law, than the law that attaches to the right 
of holding slaves in Texas ; and I will say further, that 
if a resolution, or a law, were now before us to provide a 
territorial Government for New Mexico, I would not vote 
to put any prohibition into it whatever. The use of such a 
prohibition would be idle, as it respects any effect it would 
have upon the Territory; and I would not take pains use- 
lessly to re-affirm an ordinance of Nature, nor to re-enact 
the will of God. And I would put in no Wilmot proviso 
for the mere purpose of a taunt or a reproach . I would put 
into it no evidence of the votes of superior power, for no 
purpose but to wound the pride, even whether a just 
pride, a rational pride, or an irrational pride, to wound 
the pride of the gentlemen who belong to Southern States. 
I have no such object, no such purpose. They would think 
it a taunt, an indignity; they would think it to be an act 
taking away from them what they regard a proper equality 
of privilege ; and whether they expect to realize any bene- 
fit from it or not, they would think it at least a plain theo- 
retic wrong ; that something more or less derogatory to 



I-', 

their character and their rights had taken place. I pro 
to inilici no such wound upon anv body, unless something 
essentially important to the country, and efficient to the 
preservation of liberty and freedom, is to be eff! 
Therefore, T repeat, sir, and 1 repeal it because I wish i: 
to be understood, that I do not propose to address the 
Senate often on this subject. 1 desire to pour out all mj 

heart in as plain a manner as possible; and I Bay, again, 
therefore, that if a proposition were now here for a Go- 
vernment for New .Mexico, and it was moved to insert H 
provision for a prohibition of slavery, 1 would uot vote 
for it. 

Now, Mr. President. I have established, bo far as 1 
proposed to go into anv line of observation to establish, 
the proposition with which I set out, and upon which I 
propose to stand or fall; and that is, that the whole ter- 
ritory of the States in the United States, or in the newlj 
acquired territory of the United Stat''-. has a fixed and 
settled character, now fixed and settled by law. which 
cannot he repealed; in the case of Texas without a vio- 
lation of puhlic faith, and by no human power in regard 
to California or New Mexico; that, therefore, under one 
or other of these laws, every foot of land in the Stat'- oi 
in the Territories has already received a fixed and decided 
character. 

Sir, if we were now making a Government for N 
Mexico, and anybody should propose a Wilmot proviso, 
T should treat it exactly as Mr. Polk treated that pro- 
vision for excluding slavery from Oregon. Mr. Polk waa 
la town to be in opinion decidedly averse to the Wilmot 
proviso; but he felt the necessity of establishing a govern- 



46 

ment for the Territory of Oregon, and, though the pro- 
viso was in it, he knew it would be entirely nugatory ; 
and, since it must be entirely nugatory, since it took 
away no right, no describable, no estimable, no weighable 
or tangible right of the South, he said he would sign the 
bill for the sake of enacting a law to fonn a government 
in that Territory, and let that entirely useless, and, in 
that connection entirely senseless, proviso remain. Sir, 
we hear much of the annexation of Canada; and if 
there be any man, any of the Northern Democracy, or 
any one of the Free-Soil party, who supposes it necessary 
to insert a "Wilmot proviso in a territorial government for 
New Mexico, that man will of course be of opinion that 
it is necessary to protect the everlasting snows of Canada 
from the foot of slavery by the same overspreading wing 
of an act of Congress. Sir, wherever there is a substan- 
tive good to be done ; wherever there is a foot of land to 
be staid back from becoming slave territory, I am ready 
to assert the principle of the exclusion of slavery. I am 
pledged to it from the year 1837; I have been pledged 
to it again and again ; and I will perform those pledges ; 
but I will not do a thing unnecessarily that wounds the 
feelings of others, or that does disgrace to my own under- 
standing. 

Mr. President, in the excited times in which we live, 
there is found to exist a state of crimination and recrimi- 
nation between the North and South. There are lists of 
grievances produced by each ; and those grievances, real 
or supposed, alienate the minds of one portion of the 
country from the other, exasperate the feelings, and sub- 
due the sense of fraternal affection, patriotic love and 



17 

mutual regard. 1 shall bestow a little attention, nr, 

upon these various grievances produced on th te side, 

and on the other. 1 begin with complaints of the South. 
1 will not answer, further than I have, the general 
meats of the honorable Senator from South Carolina, that 
the North has grown upon the South in consequence of 
the manner of administering this Government, in the 
collecting of its revenues, and so forth. These aire dis- 
puted topics, and I have uo inclination to enter into 
them. But I will state these complaints, especially one 
complaint of the South, which has in my opinion jn-t 
foundation; and that is, that there has been found 
at the North, among individuals and anion- Legislators, 
a disinclination to perform, fully, their constitutional 
duties in regard to the return of persons bound to ser- 
vice who have escaped into the free States. In that 
respect, it is my judgment that the South is right, and 
the North is wrong. Every member of every Northern 
Legislature is bound by oath, like every other officer in 
the country, to support the Constitution of the United 
States; and this article of the Constitution, which sayi 
to these States, that they shall deliver up fugitives from 
service, is as binding in honor and conscience as any 
other article. No man fulfils his duty in any Legislature 
who sets himself to find excuses, evasions, escapes from 
this constitutional obligation. 1 have always thought 
that the Constitution addr< — d itself to the Legislatures 
of the States or to the States themselves. It says that 
those persons escaping to other States shall be delivered 
up, and I confess I have always been of the opinion that 
it was an injunction upon the States themselves. When 



48 

it is said that a person escaping into another State, and 
becoming therefore within the jurisdiction of that State, 
shall be delivered up, it seems to me the import of the 
passage is, that the State itself, in obedience to the Con- 
stitution, shall cause him to be delivered up. That is 
my judgment. I have always entertained that opinion, 
ami I entertain it now. But when the subject, some 
years ago, was before the Supreme Court of the United 
States, the majority of the judges held, that the power 
to cause fugitives from service to be delivered up was a 
power to be exercised under the authority of this Govern- 
ment. I do not know, on the whole, that it may not 
have been a fortunate decision. My habit is to respect 
the result of judicial deliberations, and the solemnity of 
judicial decisions. But, as it now stands, the business of 
seeing that these fugitives are delivered up resides in the 
power of Congress and the national judicature, and my 
friend at the head of the Judiciary Committee has a bill 
on the subject now before the Senate, with some amend- 
ments to it, which I propose to support, with all its pro- 
visions, to the fullest extent. And I desire to call the 
attention of all sober-minded men, of all conscientious 
men, in the North, of all men who are not carried away 
by any fanatical idea or by any false idea whatever, to 
their constitutional obligations. I put it to all the sober 
and sound minds at the North as a question of morals. 
and a question of conscience. What right have they, in 
their legislative capacity, or any other capacity, to en- 
deavor to gel round this Constitution, to embarrass the 
free exercise of the rights secured by the Constitution to 
the persons wl iosc slaves escape from them? None at 



all; none at all. Neither in the forum oi mce, 

nor before the face of the Constitution, are the} justified, 
in my opinion. Of course it is a matter for their con- 
sideration. They probably, in the turmoil of the tii 
have noi Btopped to consider of this; they have folio 
what seemed to be the currenl of thought and of motives 
as the occasion arose, and they neglected t<> investi 
fully the real question, and to consider their constitu- 
tional obligations; as 1 am sure if the} did consider, 
they would fulfil them with alacrity. Therefore, I re- 
peat, sir. that here is a ground of complaint against the 
North well founded, which ought to be removed, which 
it is now in the power of the different departments of 
this Government to remove ; which calls for the enact- 
ment of proper laws authorizing the judicature of this 
Government, in the several States, to do all that is neces- 
sary for the recapture of fugitive slaves, and for the resto- 
ration of them to those who claim them. Wherever ! 
go, and whenever I speak on the subject, and when I 
speak here I desire to speak to the whole North, 1 Baj 
that the South has been injured in this respect, a, id has 
a right to complain ; and the North has been too CS 
of what I think the Constitution peremptorily and em- 
phatically enjoins upon her as a duty. 

Complaint has been made against certain resolutions 
that emanate from Legislatures at the North, and an 
sent here to US, not only on the subject of slavery in this 
District, but sometimes recommending Congres 
sider the means of abolishing slavery in the States. I 
should be sorry to be called upon to present a- 
tions here which could not be referable to any com!' 



50 

or any power in Congress ; and, therefore, I should be 
unwilling to receive from the Legislature of Massachu- 
setts any instructions to present resolutions expressive of 
any opinion whatever on the subject of slavery, as it ex- 
ists at the present moment in the States, for two reasons : 
because, first, I do not consider that the Legislature of 
Massachusetts has any thing to do with it ; and next, I 
do not consider that I, as her representative here, have 
any thing to do with it. Sir, it has become, in my 
opinion, quite too common, and, if the Legislatures of 
the States do not like that opinion, they have a great 
deal more power to put it down than I have to uphold 
it ; it has become, in my opinion, quite too common 
a practice for the State Legislatures to present resolutions 
here on all subjects, and to instruct us on all subjects. 
There is no public man that requires instruction more 
than I do, or who requires information more than I do, 
or desires it more heartily ; but I do not like to have 
it come in too imperative a shape. I took notice, with 
pleasure, of some remarks upon this subject made the 
other day in the Senate of Massachusetts, by a young 
man of talent and character, of whom the best hopes may 
be entertained. I mean Mr. Hillard. He told the 
Senate of Massachusetts that he would vote for no in- 
structions, whatever, to be forwarded to members of Con- 
gress, nor for any resolutions to be offered, expressive of 
the sense of Massachusetts, as to what her members of 
Congress ought to do. He said, that he saw no propriety 
in one set of public servants giving instructions and 
reading lectures to another set of public servants. To 
their own master all of them must stand or fall, and that 



51 

master is their constituents. I wish these sentiments 

could become more common, a great deal i e comi 

I have never entered into the question, and never Bhall, 
about the binding force of instructions, I will, how- 
ever, simply say this : if there be any matter pending in 
this body, while I am a member of if. in which M 
chusetts has an interest of- her owl] not adverse to the 
general interests of the country, I Bhall pursue her in- 
structions with gladness of heart, and with all the effi- 
ciency which loan bring to the occasion. Bu1 if the ques- 
tion bo one which affects her interest, and at the Bame 
time equally affects the interests of all the other States, 
I shall no more regard her particular wishes or instruc- 
tions, than I should regard the wishes of a man who 
might appoint me an arbitrator, or referee, to decide 
some question of important private right between him and 
his neighbor, and then instruct me to decide in liis favour. 
If ever there was a Government upon earth, it is this 
Government; if ever there was a body upon earth, it is 
this body, which should consider itself as composed by 
agreement of all, each member appointed by some, bat 
organized by the general consent of all, sitting here under 
the solemn obligations of oath and conscience, to do that 
which they think to be besi for the good of the whole. 

Then, sir, there are the abolition societies, of which I 
am unwilling to speak, but in regard to which 1 have 
very clear notions and opinions. I do not think them 
useful. I think their operations for the last twenty 
years have produced nothing good or valuable. At the 
same time, I know thousands of their members to be 
honest and good men ; perfectly well meaning men. 



52 

They have excited feelings ; they think they must do 
something for the cause of liberty, and in their sphere of 
action they do not see what else they can do, than to 
contribute to an abolition press, or an abolition society, 
or to pay an abolition lecturer. I do not mean to impute 
gross motives even to the leaders of these societies, but I 
am not blind to the consequences of their proceedings. 
I cannot but see what mischiefs their interference with 
the South has produced. And is it not plain to every 
man ? Let any gentleman who doubts of that, recur to 
the debates in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832, 
and he will see with what freedom a proposition made 
by Mr. Randolph for the gradual abolition of slavery was 
discussed in that body. Every one spoke of slavery as 
he thought ; very ignominious and disparaging names 
and epithets were applied to it. The debates in the 
House of Delegates on that occasion, I believe, Avere all 
published. They were read by every colored man who 
could read, and to those who could not read, those de- 
bates were read by others. At that time Virginia was 
not unwilling nor afraid to discuss this question, and to 
let that part of her population know as much of the dis- 
cussion as they could learn. That was in 1832. As 
has been said by the honorable member from South 
Carolina, these abolition societies commenced their cours< 
of action in 1830. It is said, I do not know how true it 
may be, that they sent incendiary publications into the 
Blave Statos ; at any event, they attempted to arouse. 
and did arouse a very strong feeling; in other words, 
they created great agitation in the North against South- 
ern slavery. Well, what was the result? The bonds 



of the Blavee were bound more firmly than their 

rivets were more Btrongly fastened. Public « »j <i 1 1 i« >i i . 
which in Virginia had begun t<> be exhibited againsl 
slavery, and was opening oul for the discussion of the 

queBtion, drew hack and shut itself Up in it-- CBStle. I 
wish to know whether any body in Virginia ••an. now, 

talk as Mr, Randolph, Governor McDowell, and other- 
talked, openly, and sent their remarks to the press, in 
1832? We all know the fact, and we all bio* 
cause; and every thing that this agitating people have 
done has been, not to enlarge, but to restrain, not to 
free, but to bind faster the slave population of the 
South. That is my judgment Sir. as I 1. 
I know many abolitionists in my own neighbour! 
very honest, good people, misled, as I think, by strange 
enthusiasm; but they wish to do something, and they 
are called on to contribute, and they do contril 
and it is my firm opinion this day. that within the 
Last twenty years as much money has been coll 
and paid to the abolition ■-. abolition 

and abolition lecturers, as would purchase the free- 
dom of every slave, man. woman, and child, in the 
State of Maryland, and send them all to !.'" la. 1 
have no doubt of it. But 1 have yel to Learn that the 
benevolence of these abolition societies has at any time 
taken that particular turn. [Laughter.] 

Again, sir, the violence of the p» mplained 

The press violent ! Why. sir. tl a is violei 

where. There arc outrageous reproaches in the North 
against the South, and there are reproaches no beti 
the South against the North. Sir. the extremists of both 



54 

parts of this country are violent ; they mistake loud and 
violent talk for eloquence and for reason. They think 
that he who talks loudest reasons best. And this we 
must expect., when the press is free, as it is here, and I 
trust always will be ; for, with all its licentiousness, and 
all its evil, the entire and absolute freedom of the press 
is essential to the preservation of government on the basis 
of a free constitution. Wherever it exists, there will be 
foolish paragraphs and violent paragraphs in the press, as 
there are, I am sorry to say, foolish speeches and violent 
speeches in both Houses of Congress. In truth, sir, I 
must say that, in my opinion, the vernacular tongue of 
the country has become greatly vitiated, depraved, and 
corrupted by the style of our congressional debates. 
[Laughter.] And if it were possible for those debates 
to vitiate the principles of the people, as much as they 
have depraved their taste, I should cry out " God save 
the Republic!" 

Well, in all this I see no solid grievance, no grievance 
presented by the South, within the redress of the Go- 
vernment, but the single one to which I have referred ; 
and that is, the want of a proper regard to the in- 
junction of the Constitution for the delivery of fugitive 
slaves. 

There are also complaints of the North against the 
South. I need not go over them particularly. The first 
and gravest is, that the North adopted the Constitution, 
recognising the existence of slavery in the States, and 
recognising the right, to a certain extent, of representa- 
tioD of the slaves in Congress, under a state of sentiment 
and expectation, which do not now exist ; and that, by 



.,, 



events, by circumstances, by the eagerness of the South 
to acquire territory and extend ber Blave population, the 
North finds Itself, in regard to the relative influence of 
the South and the North, of the free States and the - 
States, where it never did expect to find itself when 
agreed to the compact of the Constitution. The) com- 
plain, therefore, that, instead of slaver} being regi 
as an evil, as it was then, an evil which all hoped would 
be extinguished gradually, it is imw regarded by the South 
as an institution to be cherished, and preserved, and ex- 
tended; an institution which the South has already ex- 
tended to the utmost of her power bj the acquisition of 
new territory. 

Well, then, passing from that, everybody in the North 
reads; and everybody reads whatsoever the newspapers 
contain; and the newspapers, some of them, especially 
those presses to which I have alluded, are careful to 
spread about anion-- the people every reproachful senti- 
ment uttered by any Southern man bearing at all against 
the North; everything that is calculated to exasperate, 
to alienate; and there are many such things, as every- 
body will admit, from the South, or some portion of it. 
which are disseminated among the reading people; and 
they do exasperate, and alienate, and produce a mosl 
mischievous effect upon the public mind at the North. 
Sir, I would not notice things of this Bort appearing in 
obscure quarters ; but one thing has occurred in t his de- 
bate which struck me very forcibly. An honorable 
member from Louisiana addressed us the othei day on 
this subject. I suppose there is not a more amiable a:. I 

worthy gentleman in this chamber, nor b gentleman who 



56 

would be more slow to give offence to anybody, and lie 
did not mean in his remarks to give offence. But what 
did he say ? Why, sir, he took pains to run a contrast 
between the slaves of the South and the laboring people 
of the North, giving the preference in all points of con- 
dition, and comfort, and happiness, to the slaves of the 
South. The honorable member, doubtless, did not sup- 
pose that he gave any offence, or did any injustice. He 
was merely expressing his oj)inion. But does he know 
how remarks of that sort will be received by the labor- 
ing people of the North ? Why, who are the laboring 
people of the North ? They are the North. They are 
the people who cultivate their own farms with their own 
hands; freeholders, educated men, independent men. 
Let me say, sir, that five-sixths of the whole property of 
the North is in the hands of the laborers of the North ;, 
they cultivate their farms, they educate their children, 
they provide the means of independence; if they are 
71 ot freeholders, they earn wages ; these wages accumu- 
late, are turned into capital, into new freeholds, and 
small capitalists are created. That is the case, and such 
the course of things among the industrious and frugal. 
And what can these people think when so respectable 
and worthy a gentleman as the member from Louisiana 
undertakes to prove that the absolute ignorance and the 
abject slavery of the South are more in conformity with 
the high purposes and destiny of immortal, rational, hu- 
man beings, than the educated, the independent, free 
labor of the North? 

There is a more tangible and irritating cause of griev- 
ance at the North. Free blacks are constantly employed 



57 

in the vessels of the North, generally ae cookc or stew- 
ards. When the "vessel arrives nt b Southern port, these 
free colored men are taken on shore, by the police or 
municipal authority, imprisoned, and kept in prison, till 
the vessel is again ready to sail. This is ool only irri- 
tating, but exceedingly unjustifiable and oppressive. Mr. 
Hoar's mission, some time ago, to Smith Carolina, was a 
well-intended effort to remove this cause of complaint. 
The North thinks such imprisonments illegal ami uncon- 
stitutional ; and as tin- cases occur constantly, and fre- 
quently, they regard it as a great grievance. 

Now. sir. so far as any of these grievances have their 
foundation in matters of law, £hey can be redressed, and 
ought to be redressed; and so far as they have their 
foundation in matters of opinion, in sentiment, in mutual 
crimination and recrimination, all that we can do is t<» 
endeavor to allay the agitation, and cultivate a better 
feeling and more fraternal sentiments between the South 
and the North. 

Mr. President, I should much prefer to have heard ! 
every member on this floor declarations of opinion thai 
this Union could never be dissolved, than the declaration 
of opinion by anybody that, in any case, under the pres- 
sure of any circumstances, such a dissolution was possible. 
I hear with pain, and anguish, and distress, the word 
'•'secession," especially when it falls from the lips of those 
who are patriotic, and known to the country, and known 
all over the world, for their political services. Secession! 
Peaceable secession! Sir. your eyes and mine are | 
destined to see that miracle. The dismemberment of 
this vast country without convulsion ! The breaking 



58 

of the fountains of the great deep, without ruffling the 
surface ! Who is so foolish, I beg everybody's pardon, as 
to expect to see any such thing ? Sir, he who sees these 
States, now revolving in harmony around a common cen- 
tre, and expects to see them quit their places and fly off 
without convulsion, may look the next hour to see the 
heavenly bodies rush from their spheres, and jostle 
against each other in the realms of space, without caus- 
ing the crush of the universe. There can be no such 
thing as a peaceable secession. Peaceable secession is an 
utter impossibility. Is the great Constitution under 
which we live, covering this whole country, is it to be 
thawed and melted away by secession, as the snows on 
the mountain melt under the influence of a vernal sun? 
disappear almost unobserved, and run off? No, sir! 
No, sir ! I will not state what might produce the disrup- 
tion of the Union ; but, sir, I see as plainly as I see the 
sun in heaven, what that disruption itself must produce ; 
I see that it must produce war, and such a war as I will 
not describe, in its two-fold character. 

Peaceable secession ! — peaceable secession ! The con- 
current agreement of all the members of this great repub- 
lic to separate ! A voluntary separation, with alimony on 
one side and on the other. Why, what would be the re- 
sult ? Where is the line to be drawn ? What States are 
to secede ? What is to remain American ? What am I 
to be ? An American no longer ? Am I to become a 
sectional man, a local man, a separatist? with no coun- 
try in common with the gentlemen who sit around me 
here, or who fill the other House of Congress ? Heaven 
forbid! Where is the flag of the republic to remain? 



59 

Where is the eagle .--till to tower? or if he to cower, 
and shrink, and tall to tl ro ndl Wh\ . sir, one 
ancestors — our fathers and our grandfathers, thott 
•in that arc y\ Living amongst us with proloi 
lives, would rebuke and reproach us; and our children 
and our grandchildren would cry out Bhame upon u 
we, of this generation, should dishonor these ensign 

power of the Government and the harmony of thai 
Union, which is every day frit among us with so much 

joy and gratitude. What is t<> become of the army'. 

What is t<> become of the navj V What is to become of 
the public lands ? How is each of the thirty Mat' 
defend itself? I know, although the idea ha- not been 
stated distinctly, there is to !»<•. or it i< Bupposed possible 
that there should be, a Southern Confederacy. I do not 
mean, when I allude to this statement, that any one se- 
riously contemplates such a state of things. 1 do not 
mean to say that it is true, but I have heard it - 
elsewhere, that that idea has originated a design to - 
rate. 1 am sorry, sir. thai it has ever been thougl 
talked of, or dreamed of, in the wildest flights of human 
imagination. But the idea. BO far as it exists, must be of a 
separation, assigning the Blave Stat"- to one side, and tin 
free States to the other. Sir, there is not. 1 may express 
myself too strongly, perhaps, but some things, some moral 

things, are almost as impossible as other natural or physical 

things; and I hold the idea ofa separation of these Stat.-. 
those that are free to form one government, and those thai 
are slaveholding to form another, as a moral impossibility 
We could not separate tin- State- by any such line, if we 
were to draw it. We could not >i; down here to-day and 



60 

draw a line of separation that would satisfy any five men 
in the country. There are natural causes that would keep 
and tie us together, and there are social and domestic re- 
lations which we could not break if we would, and which 
we should not if we could. Sir, nobody can look over the 
nice of this country at the present moment, nobody can see 
where its population is the most dense and growing, with- 
out being ready to admit, and compelled to admit, that 
ere long America will be in the valley of the Mississippi. 
Well, now, sir, I beg to inquire what the wildest en- 
thusiast has to say on the possibility of cutting that river 
in two, and leaving free States at its source, and its branches, 
and slave States down near its mouth, each forming a 
separate Government ? Pray, sir ; pray, sir, let me say 
to the people of this country that these things are worthy 
of their pondering and of their consideration. Here, sir, 
are five millions of freemen in the free States north of the 
river Ohio : can anybody suppose that this population 
can be severed, by a line that divides them from the ter- 
ritory of a foreign and an alien Government, down some- 
where, the Lord knows where, upon the lower banks of 
the Mississippi ? What would become of Missouri ? Will 
she join the arrondissement of the slave States ? Shall 
the man from the Yellow Stone and the Platte be con- 
nected, in the new Republic, with the man who lives on 
the southern extremity of the Cape of Florida ? Sir, I am 
ashamed to pursue this line of remark. I dislike it, I 
have an utter disgust for it. I would rather hear of na- 
tural blasts and mildews, war, pestilence, and famine, than 
to hear gentlemen talk of secession. To break up ! to break 
up this great Government, to dismember this glorious coun- 



61 

try, to astonish Europe with an aot of follj Bucha Eu 
for two centuries lias never beheld in an} Government <a 
any People ! No, sir ; no, sir! There will be no secession! 
Gentlemen arc noi serious when they talk of secession. 

Sir. I hear there is to be a Convention held at \ 
villr. I am bound to believe thai if worthy gent] 
meet at Nashville in convention, their object will be to 
adopt counsels conciliator} . to ach ise the South to forbear- 
ance and moderation, and to advise the North to forbear- 
ance and moderation; and to inculcate principle 
brotherly love and affection, and attachment to the Con- 
stitution of the country as it now is. I believe, it' the 
Convention meet at all, it will be for this purpose; foi 
certainly, it' they meet for any purpose hostile to the 
Union, they have been singularly inappropriate in then 
selection of a place. I remember, sir. that when the 
treaty was concluded between France and England, at the 
peace of Amiens, a stern old Englishman and an orator, 
who regarded the conditions <»(' the peace a- ignominious 
to England, said in the House of Commons, that if King 
William could know the term- of that treaty, he would 
turn in his coffin ! Let me commend this saying of Mr. 
Windham, in all its emphasis and in all its force, t<> ain 
persons, who shall meet at Nashville for the purpoe 
concerting measures for the overthrow of this Union, ovei 
the hones of Andrew Jackson! 

Sir. I wish now to make two remarks, and hasten 
conclusion. I wish to say. in regard to Texas, that if it 
should be, hereafter, at any time, the pleasure of the 

Government of Texas to cede t<> the United States a por- 
tion, larger or smaller, of her territory which lies adjacent 



62 

to New Mexico, and north of 34° of north latitude, to be 
formed into free States, for a fair equivalent in money or 
in the payment of her debt, I think it an object well 
worthy the consideration of Congress, and I shall be happy 
to concur in it myself, if I should be in the public coun- 
sels of the country at that time. 

I have one other remark to make. In my observa- 
tions upon slavery as it has existed in the country, and 
as it now exists, I have expressed no opinion of the mode 
of its extinguishment or melioration. I will say, how- 
ever, though I have nothing to propose, because I do not 
deem myself so competent as other gentlemen to take 
any lead, that if any gentleman from the South shall pro- 
pose a scheme of colonization, to be carried on by this 
Government upon a large scale, for the transportation of 
free colored people to any colony or any place in the 
world, I should be quite disposed to incur almost any 
degree of expense to accomplish that object. Nay, sir, 
following an example set here more than twenty years 
ago by a great man, then a Senator from New York, I 
would return to Virginia, and through her for the benefit 
of the whole South, the money received from the lands 
and territories ceded by her to this Government, for any 
such purpose as to relieve, in whole or in part, or in any 
way to diminish or deal beneficially with, the free colored 
population of the Southern States. I have said that I 
honor Virginia for her cession of this territory. There 
have been received into the treasury of the United States 
eighty millions of dollars, the proceeds of the sales of the 
public lauds ceded by her. If the residue should be sold 
at the same rate, the whole aggregate will exceed two 



hundred millions of dollars. It* Virginia and the 5 
see lit to adopt any proposition to relieve themselves 
from the free people of color anion-- them, or Buch u 
maj be made free, they have my free consenl thai the 
Governmenl shall pay them any sum of money out of its 
proceeds, which may be adequate to the purpose. 

And now. .Mr. President, I .haw these observation 
a close. 1 have spoken freely, and I mean! to do so. I 
have sought to make no display j I have soughl to 
liven the occasion by no animated discussion, nor have 
I attempted any train of elaborate argument. I have 
wished only to speak my sentiments, fully and at large, 
being desirous, once and for all. to let the Senate know, 
and to let the country know, the opinions and sentiments 
which I entertain on all these subjects. These opinions 
are not likely to be suddenly changed. If there he any 
future service that I can render to the country, consist- 
ently with these sentiments and opinions. I ahal] cheer- 
fully render it. If there he not. I shall still he -lad u> 
have had an opportunity to disburden my conscience 
from the bottom of my heart, and to make known every 
political sentiment that therein exists. 

And now, Mr. President, instead of speaking of the 
possibility or utility of secession, instead of dwelling in 
these caverns of darkness, instead of groping with those 
ideas so full of all that is horrid and horrible, Lei iis come 
out into the light of day; let us enjoy the fresh air f 
Liberty and Union; lei us cherish those hope- which 
belong to us; let us devote our- . - bo thos greal ob- 
jects that are lit for our consideration and our action; 
let us raise our conceptions to the magnitude and the 
importance of the duties that devolve upon us; lei 



G4 

comprehension be as broad as the country for which we 
act, our aspirations as high as its certain destiny ; let us 
not be pigmies in a case that calls for men. Never did 
there devolve on any generation of men higher trusts 
than now devolve upon us, for the preservation of this 
( 'institution, and the harmony and peace of all who are 
destined to live under it. Let us make our generation 
one of the strongest and brightest links in that golden 
chain, which is destined, I fondly believe, to grapple the 
people of all the States to this Constitution, for ages to 
come. We have a great, popular, constitutional Govern- 
ment, guarded by law, and by judicature, and defended 
by the whole affections of the people. No monarchical 
throne presses these States together; no iron chain of 
military power encircles them ; they live and stand upon 
a Government popular in its form, representative in its 
character, founded upon principles of equality, and so con- 
structed, we hope, as to last for ever. In all its history it 
has been beneficent ; it has trodden down no man's liberty ; 
it has crushed no State. Its daily respiration i§ liberty 
and patriotism ; its yet youthful veins are full of enter- 
prise, courage, and honorable love of glory and renown. 
Large before, the country has now, by recent events, be- 
come vastly larger. This republic now extends, with a 
vast breadth, across the whole continent. The two great 
sens of the world wash the one and the other shore. We 
realize, on a mighty scale, the beautiful description of the 
ornamental edging of the buckler of Achilles — 

" Now the broad shield complete, the artist crown'd 
With his last Iiand, and poured the ocean round; 
In living silver Beem'd the waves to roll, 
Aii'l beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole." 




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